MacMcMacmac

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I picked up a pristine set of Sportster mufflers to replace the somewhat time worn reverse meg silencers I now have. They are on replacement Mike's head pipes with the upsweep at the end. It look like the mounting at the rear peg bracket is going to be a bit of a performance. Does anyone who has these mufflers installed have a picture I can steal some ideas from? Thanks!
 
Not sure if these are Sporty muffys (Dyna maybe), unknown aftermarket head pipes with the kick up at end.
100_0622.JPG
Flattened out stock mounts, added a piece of flat stock between mount an muffler. Couple shim washers to make up the L to R angle
100_0621.JPG 100_0620.JPG 100_0623.JPG
Pay no attention to the dust....lol
 
View attachment 179757
I used stock pipes with no up kick so a simple strap mounts them solidly.
Mufflers from larger HD's have mounting points way back and do pose a problem in adapting them.

...and these Sporties sound really good on Lakeview’s XS650!

Apparently, a lot of H-D folks take off the stock mufflers for much louder pipes :shrug::umm: and so it isn’t difficult to acquire new or nearly new Sportster mufflers at very low cost.
 
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The Sporster and Dyna's used the same mufflers. The bigger bikes used a different muffler.. Didn't like the look of them on my FXDX, so swapped them for some Screaming Eagle slash cut muffler.
Didn't like them on my 75 either.
Leo
 
...and these Sporties sound really good on Lakeview’s XS650!

Apparently, a lot of H-D folks take off the stock mufflers for much louder pipes :shrug::umm: and so it isn’t difficult to acquire new or nearly Sportster mufflers at very low cost.

You'd think so Pete, but around Ottawa, they can't pull them off fast enough, yet the price for these hated stock cans is through the roof. I finally snagged a pair for $50 after looking for over a year. The mounts are too far back to easily tie them in. I will have to make a tie bar that goes straight back, then goes out to meet them about 3/4" out from the line of the rear peg mounts. I tried bringing the headpipes close to the bike, but then the centerstand hits the mufflers. I'm afraid it's going to be messy. I might saw off the upsweep and move the mufflers forward a bit but that's a level of commitment i will have to ponder over a few beers.

20201201_222558.jpg
20201201_222652.jpg
 
Mounting any aftermarket or non-stock muffler on the Special can present more issues than on the Standard. To start with, the mounting point isn't as far back as it is on a Standard. You also run into issues with the passenger footpeg. It can be difficult to mount back up after you put a muffler hanger strap on it's mounting point. My "solution" is to use a hanger bracket from a Standard model that incorporates the passenger peg mount. The early ones are better, or one from an XS500. Their muffler attachment points are farther back than the later model hanger like Beags used .....

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I used XS500 brackets on both of mine because I had them. On my Standard, they lined up almost perfectly, just a hare short of reaching back enough .....

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On my Special, I had to add an extension .....

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I have a pair of slash-cut Dyna mufflers on my XJ. Took a bit of fiddling, because of the unequal baffling inside them, front -to-rear pipes on the donor.
Once I'd got that sorted out, they ran fine, but had to calm them down a bit by judicious spacing of a decibel killer washer set up the same distance in each one.
Physically, they fitted no real problem.
 
I'm usually able to deal with the issue of the stand tang hitting on an aftermarket muffler by simply putting a short length of heater hose on the tang. This far back on the exhaust system, the muffler doesn't get hot enough to melt it .....

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On my '83, I had to get a little creative and notch out the hose so it would slide on far enough past the rather large factory tang brace to be effective .....

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Thanks folks,

5Twins. I have the exact same mufflers as in you first picture. I solved the mount for those by swapping the stock muffler mounting plates side for side to gain extra length towards the back. It worked well.

As for the Sportster pipes, I think I have found a solution that is simple, stout and clean.

First I sacked up (had a few beers) and hacked off the useless upsweep on the end of my headpipes. These have always been a pain and usually do nothing but act as a depth gauge for where the baffles begin inside the mufflers.
20201204_230812.jpg


Then I offered up the Sporty cans and found I could almost directly bolt them on. Unfortunately, it took just a bit too much force to get them over the footpeg studs. They fouled the shocks and were getting hit by the center stand footpads.


So I had to think of how I could extend the peg studs somehow. I drilled the end of the wheel lug nuts I had installed on them a few years earlier to replace the rusty original acorns. I was going to use the small hole as a drill guide to put a 8mm tapped hole down the center of the peg stud and screw a retainer bolt down the middle of it. That plan went sideways, literally, almost as soon as I began drilling, so I dropped that idea.

Then I had a better idea. The lug nuts themselves are fairly long, too long I often thought, as they were a bit too prominent and squared off for the style of the rest of the fasteners. I thought I could use them as stand-offs to mount the pipes to. I reinstalled the nut and wouldn't you know it, the muffler mounting hole rested against the end of the lug nut perfectly, with the pipe end well away from the shock, and the pipe well away from the center stand. Now I just had to figure out how to get a stud attached.

20201204_230825.jpg


The covered end of the nut was only about 3mm thick, so obviously it would not have enough meat to thread a stud into, so I decided to drill a 1/2" clearance hole through the end cap until I hit the 12mm threaded portion. If I had the proper tap and drill for this thread, I think I would have drilled through the end and just finish tapping the entire length of the nut for maximum thread count.
20201204_230935.jpg


I then reversed the nut so that the clearance hole pointed in towards the peg stud and screwed it on until it bottomed out against the peg mount. In this way, I had the OEM threaded end facing outward which gave me the most threads as possible to work with. I used a smaller bolt as a depth gauge and found I had over 1/2" of thread to work with, which will be plenty strong to hold a short 12mmX1.25mm stainless cap screw and washer. This will be a very clean and strong mount.


These are the style of lug nuts I bought at Canadian Tire, although I'm sure they will be available most anywhere.

20201204_230848.jpg


Be sure and get ones with the 1.25mm thread pitch. Most are 1.5. Oddly enough, I went searching for more and found none, so they are definitely not as common. Anyhow, this seems to be solved. We'll see if the left side works as well! I'm not sure how well this will work for someone who needs the passenger pegs, obviously I do not.
 
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That looks great Mac - nicely done!

Frankly, I doubt that very many of us need pillion footpegs these days. At our age, most of the lady-friends have given up riding with us or they have their own bikes.

Pete
 
Thanks folks,

5Twins. I have the exact same mufflers as in you first picture. I solved the mount for those by swapping the stock muffler mounting plates side for side to gain extra length towards the back. It worked well.

As for the Sportster pipes, I think I have found a solution that is simple, stout and clean.

First I sacked up (had a few beers) and hacked off the useless upsweep on the end of my headpipes. These have always been a pain and usually do nothing but act as a depth gauge for where the baffles begin inside the mufflers.
View attachment 179966

Then I offered up the Sporty cans and found I could almost directly bolt them on. Unfortunately, it took just a bit too much force to get them over the footpeg studs. They fouled the shocks and were getting hit by the center stand footpads.


So I had to think of how I could extend the peg studs somehow. I drilled the end of the wheel lug nuts I had installed on them a few years earlier to replace the rusty original acorns. I was going to use the small hole as a drill guide to put a 8mm tapped hole down the center of the peg stud and screw a retainer bolt down the middle of it. That plan went sideways, literally, almost as soon as I began drilling, so I dropped that idea.

Then I had a better idea. The lug nuts themselves are fairly long, too long I often thought, as they were a bit too prominent and squared off for the style of the rest of the fasteners. I thought I could use them as stand-offs to mount the pipes to. I reinstalled the nut and wouldn't you know it, the muffler mounting hole rested against the end of the lug nut perfectly, with the pipe end well away from the shock, and the pipe well away from the center stand. Now I just had to figure out how to get a stud attached.

View attachment 179971

The covered end of the nut was only about 3mm thick, so obviously it would not have enough meat to thread a stud into, so I decided to drill a 1/2" clearance hole through the end cap until I hit the 12mm threaded portion. If I had the proper tap and drill for this thread, I think I would have drilled through the end and just finish tapping the entire length of the nut for maximum thread count.
View attachment 179968

I then reversed the nut so that the clearance hole pointed in towards the peg stud and screwed it on until it bottomed out against the peg mount. In this way, I had the OEM threaded end facing outward which gave me the most threads as possible to work with. I used a smaller bolt as a depth gauge and found I had over 1/2" of thread to work with, which will be plenty strong to hold a short 12mmX1.25mm stainless cap screw and washer. This will be a very clean and strong mount.


These are the style of lug nuts I bought at Canadian Tire, although I'm sure they will be available most anywhere.

View attachment 179970

Be sure and get ones with the 1.25mm thread pitch. Most are 1.5. Oddly enough, I went searching for more and found none, so they are definitely not as common. Anyhow, this seems to be solved. We'll see if the left side works as well! I'm not sure how well this will work for someone who needs the passenger pegs, obviously I do not.

Out of curiosity, what is the purpose of that sheetmetal pressing you have sandwiched between frame and footpeg?
As for M12x1.25 lug nuts, I believe Toyota cars use them. As for taps, M10x1.25 and M12x1.25 are very handy to have when working on Japanese bikes.
 
The tin cover over the peg and muffler mounts is simply a "beauty" plate for the most part, but it does incorporate the lower mounting point for those small lower side covers so you can't go without it if you still have them .....

kmkHYEU.jpg


2YdbxVp.jpg
 
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